Ube Cream Liqueur: A Purple Wave No One Saw Coming
If you have been paying keen attention to the shifts in bartending menus across mixology spaces, you’d have spotted the presence of many dreamily purple drinks which are becoming quite popular. The ingredient which lends many of these cocktails their signature pastel hue is ube cream liqueur, made out of Filipino yams. These yams are known for their slightly nutty, sweet and vanilla-like flavour and are rather turning into a bar essential for blending the trendiest cocktails of the season.
Creamy ube liqueur actually has a very silky and rich texture, is almost regal in its stunning purple and is a very straightforward ingredient to incorporate in versatile mixes. Think tropical touch on a classic cream or coffee liqueur, and you will have ube creamy liqueur, a blend of smooth, creamy nuance with a lush, beachy quality. Here’s more on how this Filipino yam is quickly becoming a sought-after cocktail staple in trendiest bars around the world:
A Purple Wave
Incidentally, ube cream liqueur has begun to gain recognition at a time when purple cocktails are sweeping the cocktail scene. Bartendershave started to realise the potential of this ingredient as one which builds flavour but also an interesting, almost mystical purple, violet hue into cocktails that is iconic and extremely photogenic. At a time when aesthetic elements have to brim with social media-ready energy, ube cream liqueur emerges as an ingredient perfect for this artsy job. Now, espresso martini cocktails are making room for the ube latte martini cocktail, a luxe blend with a regal persona.
Dessert Cocktails Galore
Move over mudslide shakes and coffee liqueur slushies: ube liqueur smoothies are the new dessert cocktails on the block. Ube liqueur is actually an excellent addition to sweet cocktails because of its creamy, vanilla-like notes and its sweet flavour. It can be incorporated into iced coffees with a cocktail-like twist, after-dinner smoothies and creamy cocktail milkshakes. Not only does it build lots of sweet and rich flavours into these drinks but it also lends a shade of mauve or violet to the cocktails, making them appear thoroughly chic and adequately luxe. One such interesting cocktail which can be prepared using this purple ingredient is an ube white russian which brings together sweet creamy flavours of about 15 ml of ube liqueur with the clear taste of about 30 ml Ciroc Ultra Premium Vodka or any other premium vodka of choice and just a tablespoon of coffee liqueur, all built on a bed of ice.
Also Read: 7 Homemade Cookie Pairings With Infused Milk And Cream Liqueurs
Excellent With Cocktail Ingredients
Yet another reason why ube liqueur seems to be gaining popularity is because along with bringing its own flavour profile into blends, it also mixes well with a host of other cocktail ingredients, in the making of really vibrant drinks. It can be paired with different liquors including coconut-infused white rum used for making cocktails like an ube-infused tropical piña colada or even with flavour accents like pandan, sesame and matcha featured in Asian-inspired cocktail blends.
Ube liqueur can also be used to introduce a swirl in ice cream-based autumnal dessert cocktails and it lends spirits like bourbon an exquisite creamy, purplish quality when it is incorporated in rich, winter-time drinks.
A Global Fit
What makes ube liqueur work across bars around the world is the way in which it eases into the rosters of bartenders across different mixology cultures. Ube liqueur blends just as well with creamy spirits used for making cocktails like Irish coffee as it would with a creamy lassi that is used in the making of Indian-inspired blends.
For mixologists experimenting with different regional ingredients in cocktail craft, ube liqueur is the newest approachable element because it integrates exceedingly well into this local produce. Mix it with matcha, or garnish an ube liqueur infused cocktail with tulsi, the resulting drink would offer sheer flavour balance.
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